Interleaving and puncturing apparatus and method thereof

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for interleaving and puncturing are provided. The apparatus includes: an interleaver formed of a plurality of columns and rows, configured to perform interleaving by writing bits input to the interleaver in the plurality of columns and reading the bits from each row of the plurality of columns in which the bits are written; and a puncturer configured to puncture a predetermined number of bits among the bits read from the interleaver.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No.10-2014-0058327, filed on May 15, 2014, in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments related tointerleaving and puncturing bits of a transmission signal such ascodeword bits.

2. Description of the Related Art

A polar code is an error correction code which is developed in 2009 byArikan, and theoretically achieves a channel capacity at a binary-inputdiscrete memoryless symmetric channel. However, there is a disadvantagein that when the polar code is designed as 2×2 kernel matrix, a lengthof the code is limited to power of 2.

The polar code is generated by a generated matrix G of K×N sizegenerated based on a channel polarization phenomenon. Here, the matrix Gis a matrix formed of binary values, that is N=2^(n) (N is a naturalnumber greater than 1), and K is a natural number not greater than N.

Accordingly, a polar codeword x corresponding to u which is a row vectorof K length formed of binary values may be calculated as Equation 1below.

u−G=[u ₀ ,u ₁ , . . . ,u _(K-1) ]·G=x=[x ₀ ,x ₁ , . . . ,x_(N-1)]  [Equation 1]

Here, an addition of the binary values is performed by an arithmeticoperation, and the polar codeword becomes the row vector of K lengthformed of binary values. Here, according to a change of u value, a polarcodeword x is also changed, and this mapping relation between u and x iscalled a polar code.

N length of the polar code is only a power value of 2, and thus, thereis a problem that the length of the polar code is limited.

One of the methods which are used to resolve this problem is apuncturing method. A puncturing is one of the methods which are able tochange a code length and a code rate variously, and is a method whichdoes not transmit a part of bits constituting a codeword by removing thesame. Here, a codeword before being punctured is called a mother code.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of puncturing three bits (=p) regarding apolar codeword where K=4 and N=8.

Referring to FIG. 1, when a polar codeword x corresponding to ugenerated by a generator matrix G is formed of x₀, x₁, x₂, x₃, x₄, x₅,x₆, x₇ bits, if the x₁, x₄, x₇ bits are punctured, x₀, x₂, x₃, x₅, x₆bit remain.

This puncturing method may be performed in a bit unit, and thus, everycode length shorter than N may be made theoretically. Meanwhile, whenpuncturing is performed, various puncturing patterns may exist accordingto N and p. Even if a same number of bits are punctured, an error rateperformance varies according to the puncturing pattern, and thus, it isimportant to decide which bit should be punctured.

SUMMARY

Various exemplary embodiments provide an interleaving and puncturingapparatuses and methods using an interleaver and a puncturer.

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided anapparatus for interleaving and puncturing. The apparatus may include: aninterleaver formed of a plurality of columns and rows, configured toperform interleaving by writing bits input to the interleaver in theplurality of columns and reading the bits from each row of the pluralityof columns in which the bits are written; and a puncturer configured topuncture a predetermined number of bits among the bits read from theinterleaver.

Here, the interleaver may successively write the input bits from a firstrow of a first column to a last row of a last column among the pluralityof columns and rows in a column direction.

The interleaver may rearrange an order of the plurality of columns inwhich the bits are written, and successively read the bits written ineach row of the plurality of columns of which the order is rearranged,in a row direction.

The puncturer may successively puncture the predetermined number of bitsamong the bits read from the interleaver.

The interleaver may read the bits written in the plurality of columnsand rows differently depending on a number of the predetermined numberof bits to be punctured.

Here, the number of the input bits may be N=2^(n), the number of theplurality of columns may be N_(c)=2^(m) (1≦m≦n−1), the number of theplurality of rows may be N_(r)=N/N_(c), a codeword to be designed fromthe input bits may have a length L_(i), and the number of thepredetermined number of bits to be punctured may be p_(i)=N−L_(i). Then,if p_(i) is greater than or equal to 2^(m), and is a power value of 2,the interleaver may read the bits written in the plurality of columnsand rows successively from a first row to a last row of the plurality ofcolumns in a row direction. However, if p_(i) is less than 2^(m), or, ifp_(i) is greater than or equal to 2^(m), but is not a power value of 2,the interleaver may read the bits written in the plurality of columnsand rows successively from the first row to a (j−1)^(th) row of theplurality of columns, and then, read predetermined at least one bitwritten in a j^(th) row of the plurality of columns,

j=┌p _(i) /N _(c)┐

where

According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a method of interleaving and puncturing. The method mayinclude: performing interleaving by writing bits input to an apparatusfor interleaving and puncturing in a plurality of columns and rows andreading the bits from each row of the plurality of columns which thebits are written; and puncturing a predetermined number of bits amongthe bits read from the interleaving.

Here, the writing may include successively writing the input bits from afirst row of a first column to a last row of a last column among theplurality of columns and rows in a column direction.

The interleaving may include rearranging an order of the plurality ofcolumns which the codeword bits are written, and the reading the bitsmay include successively reading the bits written in each row of theplurality of columns of which the order is rearranged, in a rowdirection.

The puncturing may include: successively puncturing the predeterminednumber of bits among the bits read from the interleaving.

According to the various exemplary embodiments, various puncturingpatterns regarding polar code bits may be defined according to theconfiguration and the operation method of the apparatus for interleavingand puncturing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of performing a puncturingregarding a polar code;

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate a method of generating a bit-reversalaccording to exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram explaining a configuration of an apparatus forinterleaving and puncturing, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a view explaining a configuration of an interleaver accordingto an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 5A to 8 are views explaining interleaving operations, according toexemplary embodiments; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart explaining a method of interleaving andpuncturing, according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments are described in greater detail with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

According to an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a puncturingmethod for a polar code which may be referred to as a quasi-uniformpuncturing technique. The quasi-uniform puncturing technique is a methodof arranging indexes of a polar codeword bits in a bit-reversal orderand then puncturing the codeword bits corresponding to the relevantindexes in order.

To perform the bit-reversal arranging, first of all, regarding a lengthof a code N=2^(n), each of bit indexes of 0, 1, . . . , N−1 isrepresented as n bits. For example, an index 0 may be expressed as 00 .. . 0, an index 1 may be expressed as 00 . . . 1, . . . , and an indexN−1 may be expressed as 11 . . . 1. After rearranging the converted nbits of each index to be symmetrical to the n bits before thisarrangement, the rearranged n bits are converted to a decimal numberindex.

As an example of the above method, a method of generating a bit-reversalregarding N=4 or N=8 is illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B, according toexemplary embodiments. FIG. 2A illustrates a method of generating abit-reversal regarding N=4, and FIG. 2B illustrates a method ofgenerating a bit-reversal regarding N=8.

After arranging bit indexes in a bit-reversal order regarding the lengthN as above, p number bits of the codeword are punctured in order fromthe front. For example, in case of FIG. 2A, if the quasi-uniformpuncture is performed when N=4 and p=2, x₀ bit and x₂ bit may bepunctured, and in case of FIG. 2B, if the quasi-uniform puncture isperformed when N=8 and p=2, x₀ bit and x₄ bit may be punctured.

Meanwhile, the quasi-uniform puncture technique makes it possible toplan a polar code in various lengths, through a simple bit-reversalarrangement and a sequential puncture, but there is a problem that onlyone puncturing order is determined. That is, if one of an order of bitsto be punctured is changed, the puncturing is performed by a differentmethod.

Accordingly, another puncturing method is provided herebelow, accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram explaining a configuration of an apparatus forinterleaving and puncturing according to an exemplary embodiment.Referring to FIG. 3, an apparatus 100 for interleaving and puncturingincludes an interleaver 110 and a puncturer 120.

The interleaver 110 performs interleaving regarding input codeword bits.For this, the interleaver 110 may be formed of a plurality of columnsand rows to use these columns and rows for interleaving the inputcordword bits.

In this case, the number of columns and rows of the interleaver 110 maybe determined based on the number of the input codeword bits.

For example, the input bits may be x=[x₀, x₁, . . . , x_(N-1)] which arecodeword bits of an N=2^(n) bits generated by a polar code. In thiscase, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the interleaver 110 includes N_(c)=2^(m)(1≦m≦n−1) number of columns, and each column may be formed ofN_(r)=N/N_(c) number of rows.

If the interleaver 110 uses a plurality of columns and rows, theinterleaver 120 may perform interleaving by writing the input codewordbits in the plurality of columns and reading the plurality of rows ofthe plurality of columns where the codeword bits are written. This isexplained in detail in FIG. 5.

To be specific, the interleaver 110 may write input bits from a firstrow of a first column to a last row of a last column among the pluralityof columns successively.

In other words, as illustrated in FIG. 5A, in response to input ofcodeword bits x=[x₀, x₁, . . . , x_(N-1)], the interleaver 110, bywriting the x₀ bit in the first row of the first column, and by writingthe x₁, x₂, . . . bits in a column direction from the next row, maywrite N_(c) number of codeword bits in the first column successively.

Afterword, the interleaver 110 may write a bit next to the bit writtenin the last row of the first column such that the bit is written from afirst row of a second column to the last row successively. Further, theinterleaver 110, by repeating this operation to a third column, a fourthcolumn, . . . , the last column, may write the input bits in each row ofevery column in a column direction.

In this manner, by writing the input bits from the first row to the lastrow of a column, and if the input bits are written in every row of thecorresponding column, by writing the input bits from the first row tothe last row of a next column, the interleaver 110 may write the inputbits in each row of every column.

Afterword, the interleaver 110 may rearrange the order of the pluralityof columns in which the codeword bits are written.

In this case, the interleaver 110 may rearrange the order of theplurality of columns in which the codeword bits are written through abit-reversal as illustrated in FIG. 5B.

To be specific, the interleaver 110 may assign indexes 0, 1, . . . ,2^(m)−1 to 2^(m) number of plurality of columns, respectively, representthe index assigned to each column as n bits, rearrange the n bits ofeach column to be symmetrical to the n bits before this arrangement,convert the symmetrically arranged bits to a decimal number index, andthen rearrange an order of the plurality of columns according to thedecimal number indexes.

For example, if the interleaver 110 uses four columns, indexes 0, 1, 2,3 may be assigned from a first column to a fourth column, respectively,and the indexes may be expresses as 00, 01, 10, 11 bits, respectively.Accordingly, if bits corresponding to each column are rearranged so thatthe rearranged bits are symmetrical to the bits before therearrangement, the rearranged bits become 00, 10, 01, 11, and if thesebits are converted into decimal numbers, the rearranged bits become 0,2, 1, 3. Accordingly, the interleaver 110 may rearrange the existingfirst column to be the first column, the existing second column to bethe third column, the existing third column to be the second column andthe existing fourth column to be the fourth column.

Meanwhile, the above example explains that after writing the codewordbits in the plurality of columns, the order of the plurality of columnsin which the codeword bits are written is rearranged, but this is merelyone of the examples.

According to another exemplary embodiment, information regarding arearranging order according to the bit-reversal of the columns of theinterleaver 110 may be pre-stored in the apparatus 100 for interleavingand puncturing. In this case, instead of writing the input bits in theplurality of columns successively and then rearranging the order of theplurality of columns which the bits are written according to thebit-reversal order, the interleaver 110 may write the input bits in theplurality of columns corresponding to the rearranging order according tothe pre-stored information.

According to this exemplary embodiment, the interleaver 110 does notrearrange the order of the plurality of columns such that the existingfirst column in which the bits are written to be the first column, theexisting second column in which the bits are written to be the thirdcolumn, the existing third column in which the bits are written to bethe second column, and the existing fourth column in which the bits arewritten to be the fourth column, but instead, the interleaver may writethe input bits in a rearranged order of the first column, the thirdcolumn, the second column and the fourth column of the interleaver 110.

After the input codeword bits are written according to either of theabove two exemplary embodiments, the interleaver 110 may read thecodeword bits written in each row of the plurality of columnssuccessively.

To be specific, as illustrated in FIG. 5C, the interleaver 110 may readbits written in a first row of every column in a row direction, readbits written in a second row of every column in a row direction, . . . ,and read bits written in a last row of every column in a row direction.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6A-6C, if codeword bits x=[x₀, x₁, .. . , x₁₅] are input to the interleaver 110, the interleaver 110 mayperform interleaving using four columns formed of four rows,respectively. In other words, the interleaver 110 performs interleavingwith respect to a case where N=16 and N_(c)=4.

First, as illustrated in FIG. 6A, the codeword bits x=[x₀, x₁, . . . ,x₁₅] input to the interleaver 110 are written from a first column to afourth column successively. Afterword, the order of the columns isrearranged by the bit-reversal order, and as illustrated in FIG. 6B,orders of an existing second column and an existing third column arechanged. In other words, an existing first column is maintained as thefirst column, the existing second column is changed to the third column,the existing third column is changed to the second column, and anexisting fourth column is maintained as the fourth column.

Afterword, as illustrated in FIG. 6C, in response to reading bits from afirst row to a fourth row of the four columns, codeword bits which havean order such as [x₀, x₈, x₄, x₁₂, x₁, x₉, x₅, x₁₃, x₂, x₁₀, x₆, x₁₄,x₃, x₁₁, x₇, x₁₅] may be output from the interleaver 110.

The puncturer 120 may puncture a predetermined number of bits among thebits output from the interleaver 110. Herein, the puncturing means nottransmitting a part of the codeword bits by removing the part of thecodeword bits, and the apparatus 100 for interleaving and puncturing maypre-store information regarding the number of bits to be punctured, andso on.

To be specific, the puncturer 120 may puncture the predetermined numberof bits among the bits output from the interleaver 110 successively. Inother words, the puncturer 120 may puncture the predetermined number ofbits in an output order of the bits output from the interleaver 110.

For example, the codeword bits which have an order of [x₀, x₈, x₄, x₁₂,x₁, x₉, x₅, x₁₃, x₂, x₁₀, x₆, x₁₄, x₃, x₁₁, x₇, x₁₅] are output from theinterleaver 110 as described above, and p number of bits may bepunctured. In this case, the puncturer 120 may puncture p number of bitsfrom x₀ bit successively.

Accordingly, by puncturing a mother code which has a length of N, Tnumbers of polar codes which have different lengths may be designed. Thelength of a shortest codeword may be longer than N/2, and the length ofT numbers of polar codes which are punctured (L₁, L₂, . . . , L_(T)) maybe expressed by: N/2<L₁<L₂< . . . <L_(T)<N.

As above, according to an exemplary embodiment, with respect to afeature of using an interleaver to puncture a polar code, various kindsof a puncturing pattern regarding a polar code may be defined accordingto a configuration and an operation method of the interleaver.

Meanwhile, the above example explains interleaving codeword bits throughthe interleaver 110 directly, but this is one of examples. Theinterleaver 110 may interleave indexes of the codeword bits, not thecodeword bits themselves, and the puncturer 120 may puncture thecodeword bits which have the indexes output from the interleaver 110successively.

Also, in the above example, it is explained that the interleaver 110reads the bits from a first row to a last row of a plurality of columnsand outputs the bits written in the plurality of columns, but this isone of examples.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the apparatus 100 forinterleaving and puncturing may be equipped with an additional memorydepending on circumstances, and the interleaver 110 may perform a readoperation using a memory (not illustrated) according to the number ofpunctured bits. In a case where the interleaver 110 performs the readoperation using a memory (not illustrated) as above, the interleaver 110may not perform an operation of rearranging an order of the plurality ofcolumns.

To be specific, as an example, p_(i)=N−L_(i) number of bits may bepunctured to design a codeword of L_(i) length.

In this case, if p_(i) is greater than or equals to 2^(m), and is apower value of 2, the interleaver 110 may perform the read operationfrom a first row to a last row of a plurality of columns successively asdescribed above.

However, if p_(i) is less than 2^(m), or, if p_(i) is greater than orequal to 2^(m), but is not a power value of 2, the interleaver 110 mayperform the read operation using the memory (not illustrated).Hereinafter, a method of performing the read operation by theinterleaver 110 using the memory (not illustrated) is described indetail.

First of all, ┌z┐ is defined as an operator calculating a smallestinteger which is greater than z, and mod(a, b) is defined as an operatorcalculating a remainder when a is divided by b.

In this case, when j=┌p_(i)/N_(c)┐, the interleaver performs readingfrom the first row successively until a j−1 number of rows. In otherwords, the interleaver 110, by reading codeword bits written in thefirst row of a plurality of columns which the codeword bits are written,by reading the codeword bits written in the second row of the pluralityof columns, . . . , and by reading bits written in the (j−1)^(th) row ofthe plurality of columns, may read bits written in each row from thefirst row to the (j−1)^(th) row of the plurality of columnssuccessively.

Afterward, the interleaver 110 may perform a read operation regardingthe j^(th) row using a memory (not illustrated) which stores informationregarding the location of the column in which mod(p_(i), N_(c)) numberof bits to be punctured are written.

For this, the information regarding the location of the column in whichmod(p_(i), N_(c)) number of bits to be punctured are written may bepre-stored in the memory (not illustrated).

In this case, the interleaver 110 may perform the reading from thecolumn in which the bits to be punctured are written using the locationinformation which was pre-stored while reading the j^(th) row.

For example, N=16, N_(c)=4 and p_(i)=6. In this case, j=┌6/4┐=2, andmod(6, 4)=2.

In this case, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the interleaver 110 may outputx₀, x₄, x₈, x₁₂ by reading codeword bits written in a first row of fourcolumns. Afterwards, the interleaver 110 may perform reading usinginformation regarding a location pre-stored in a memory (notillustrated), while reading a second row.

For example, as information regarding a location of a column in which2=mod(6, 4) number of bits to be punctured are written in the memory(not illustrated), when indexes 2, 4 of the column in which the bits tobe punctured are written are pre-stored, the interleaver 110 may performa reading from the column in which the bits to be punctured are writtenwhile reading the second row using the information regarding thepre-stored location. In other words, in the second row, the interleaver110 may read x₅ written in the second column, may read x₁₃ written inthe fourth column, and may read bits written in remaining columnssuccessively.

Accordingly, bits may be output in the order of [x₀, x₄, x₈, x₁₂, x₅,x₁₃, . . . ], and finally, by the puncturer 120, x₀, x₄, x₈, x₁₂, x₅,x₁₃ may be punctured among the bits outputted from the interleaver 110.

As another example, in response to mod(p_(i), N_(c)) number of bits tobe punctured are written in columns adjoining each other, informationregarding a location of a column in which one of bits to be punctured iswritten may be pre-stored.

In this case, the interleaver 110 may perform a reading operation from acolumn in which the bits to be punctured are written using thepre-stored location information while reading the j^(th) row.

For example, N=16, N_(c)=4 and p_(i)=6. In this case, j=┌6/4┐=2, andmod(6, 4)=2.

In this case, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the interleaver 110 may outputx₀, x₄, x₈, x₁₂ by reading the codeword bits written in a first row ofthe four columns. Afterward, the interleaver 110 may perform a readingoperation using the information regarding the location pre-stored in thememory (not illustrated) while reading the second row.

For example, as information regarding a location of a column in which2=mod(6, 4) number of bits to be punctured are written in the memory(not illustrated), when index 2 of the column in which the bits to bepunctured are written is pre-stored, the interleaver 110 may read twobits from the column in which the bits to be punctured are written usingthe information regarding the pre-stored location, while reading thesecond row.

In other words, in case of the second row, the interleaver 110 may readx₅ written in the second column, may read x₉ written in the 3rd columnadjoining successively, and may read bits written in remaining columnssuccessively.

Accordingly, bits may be outputted in the order of [x₀, x₄, x₈, x₁₂, x₅,x₉, . . . ] from the interleaver 110, and finally, by the puncturer 120,x₀, x₄, x₈, x₁₂, x₅, x₉ may be punctured among the bits output from theinterleaver 110.

Meanwhile, in the above example, the interleaver 110 performing areading operation by using the memory (not illustrated) is explained,but this is one of the examples. In other words, in response to indexesregarding bits to be punctured are pre-stored in the memory (notillustrated), the puncturer 120 may puncture the bits including thepre-stored indexes in the memory (not illustrated) among codeword bitsoutput from the interleaver 110.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart explaining an interleaving and puncturing methodaccording to an exemplary embodiment.

First, interleaving is performed by writing input codeword bits in aplurality of columns using an interleaver formed of a plurality ofcolumns and rows, and by reading each row of the plurality of columns inwhich the codeword bits are written (S910).

To be specific, the codeword bits input from a first row of a firstcolumn to a last row of a last column among the plurality of columns maybe written successively. After rearranging an order of the plurality ofcolumns in which the codeword bits are written, the codeword bitswritten in each row of the plurality of rearranged columns may be readsuccessively.

Afterword, a predetermined number of bits among the bits output from theinterleaver is punctured (S920). In this case, the predetermined numberof bits among the bits output from the interleaver may be puncturedsuccessively.

Meanwhile, a method of interleaving and puncturing the input codewordbits are explained in detail above.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program whichperforms an interleaving and puncturing method successively according tothe above exemplary embodiments may be provided.

A non-transitory readable medium means a medium which stores a datasemi-permanently and is readable by an apparatus, not a media whichstores a data for a short period such as a register, a cache, a memoryand so on. Specifically, various applications or programs such as acompact disc (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), a hard disk, aBlu-ray disk, a universal serial bus (USB), a memory card and aread-only memory (ROM) may be stored and provided in a non-transitoryreadable medium.

The components, units or elements (hereafter collectively referred to as“elements”) represented by a block as illustrated in FIG. 3 may beembodied as various numbers of hardware, software and/or firmwarestructures that execute respective functions described above, accordingto an exemplary embodiment. For example, these elements may use a directcircuit structure, such as a memory, a processor, a look-up table, etc.that may execute the respective functions through controls of one ormore microprocessors or other control apparatuses. Also, these elementsmay be specifically embodied by a program or a part of code, whichcontains one or more executable instructions for performing specifiedlogic functions. Also, at least one of these elements may furtherinclude a processor such as a central processing unit (CPU) thatperforms the respective functions, a microprocessor, or the like.Although a bus is not illustrated in the above block diagrams,communication between the respective blocks may be performed via thebus.

Various exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept have beenillustrated and explained above, but the inventive concept is notlimited to the exemplary embodiments. Also, the descriptions of theexemplary embodiments are intended to be illustrative, and not to limitthe scope of the claims, and it would be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that changes may be made to the exemplary embodiments withoutdeparting from the principles and spirit of the inventive concept, thescope of which is defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for interleaving and puncturing,comprising: an interleaver comprising a plurality of columns and rows,configured to perform interleaving by writing bits input to theinterleaver in the plurality of columns and reading the bits from eachrow of the plurality of columns in which the bits are written; and apuncturer configured to puncture a predetermined number of bits amongthe bits read from the interleaver.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe interleaver is configured to successively write the input bits froma first row of a first column to a last row of a last column among theplurality of columns and rows in a column direction.
 3. The apparatus ofclaim 2, wherein the interleaver is configured to rearrange an order ofthe plurality of columns in which the bits are written, and successivelyread the bits written in each row of the plurality of columns of whichthe order is rearranged, in a row direction.
 4. The apparatus of claim3, wherein the puncturer is configured to successively puncture thepredetermined number of bits among the bits read from the interleaver.5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interleaver is configured torearrange an order of the plurality of columns in which the bits arewritten, and successively read the bits written in each row of theplurality of columns of which the order is rearranged, in a rowdirection.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the puncturer isconfigured to successively puncture the predetermined number of bitsamong the bits read from the interleaver.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the interleaver is configured to write the input bits from afirst row of a predetermined column, which is not a first column, to alast row of another predetermined column among the plurality of columnsand rows, in a column direction.
 8. The apparatus of claim 5, whereinthe interleaver is configured to successively read the bits written ineach row of the plurality of columns in a row direction.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 8, wherein the puncturer is configured tosuccessively puncture the predetermined number of bits among the bitsread from the interleaver.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theinterleaver is configured to read the bits written in the plurality ofcolumns and rows differently depending on a number of the predeterminednumber of bits to be punctured.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein anumber of the input bits is N=2^(n), a number of the plurality ofcolumns is N_(c)=2^(m) (1≦m≦n−1), a number of the plurality of rows isN_(r)=N/N_(c), a codeword to be designed from the input bits has alength L_(i), and the number of the predetermined number of bits to bepunctured is p_(i)=N−L_(i), wherein if p_(i) is greater than or equal to2^(m), and is a power value of 2, the interleaver is configured to readthe bits written in the plurality of columns and rows successively froma first row to a last row of the plurality of columns in a rowdirection.
 12. The puncturing apparatus of claim 11, wherein if p_(i) isless than 2^(m), or, if p_(i) is greater than or equal to 2^(m), but isnot a power value of 2, the interleaver is configured to read the bitswritten in the plurality of columns and rows successively from the firstrow to a (j−1)^(th) row of the plurality of columns, and then, readpredetermined at least one bit written in a j^(th) row of the pluralityof columns, wherej=┌p _(i) /N _(c)┐.
 13. A method of puncturing and interleaving,comprising: performing interleaving by writing bits input to anapparatus for interleaving and puncturing in a plurality of columns androws and reading the bits from each row of the plurality of columnswhich the bits are written; and puncturing a predetermined number ofbits among the bits read from the interleaving.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein the writing comprises successively writing the input bitsfrom a first row of a first column to a last row of a last column amongthe plurality of columns and rows in a column direction.
 15. The methodof claim 14, wherein the interleaving comprises rearranging an order ofthe plurality of columns in which the bits are written, and wherein thereading the bits comprises successively reading the bits written in eachrow of the plurality of columns of which the order is rearranged, in arow direction.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the puncturingcomprises successively puncturing the predetermined number of bits amongthe bits read from the interleaving.
 17. The method of claim 13, whereinthe interleaving comprises rearranging an order of the plurality ofcolumns in which the bits are written, and successively reading the bitswritten in each row of the plurality of columns of which the order isrearranged, in a row direction.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein thepuncturing comprises successively puncturing the predetermined number ofbits among the bits read from the interleaving.
 19. The method of claim13, wherein the writing comprises writing the input bits from a firstrow of a predetermined column, which is not a first column, to a lastrow of another predetermined column among the plurality of columns androws, in a column direction.
 20. The method of claim 13, wherein thereading comprises reading the bits written in the plurality of columnsand rows differently depending on a number of the predetermined numberof bits to be punctured.